Hacking Classrooms via Mars

A short report today on the inspiring Mars Education Hackathon I recently had the good fortune to be invited to attend in San Francisco. Hosted by the Mozilla Foundation, digital studio MX, and local PBS affiliate KQED, the two-day blitz included six ad hoc project teams – fresh and interdisciplinary collaborations between planetary scientists, computer […]

Arsenic-based life and Astrobiology

It’s been some time since the controvertial announcement that “arsenic-based life” had been discovered on planet Earth. With time, however, the less-sensational reality of the discovery has been made more clear, and I think it is sensible to review the current state of the research as it relates to the biochemistry of life and the idea of […]

Xenoarchaeology: Reality and Fantasy

Cultural Xenoarchaeology For reasons I can’t immediately explain, (the recent rash of technical publications addressing the concept of “xenoarchaeology” or “non-terrestrial artifacts” nonwithstanding,) there is a tantalizing idea cropping up in a number of recent and upcoming films and television programs. (See: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Prometheus, Ancient Aliens.) This concept, simply, involves the […]

Spaceflight simulators, space games, and STEM

For those who aren’t familiar, “STEM” is a particularly hot-button acronym in the professional space education community these days that stands for, “Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.” These are the college degrees and professions that ultimately keep the economy, innovation, and space exploration in particular going. These are also the fields that have been suffering […]

H.G. Wells, Crichton, and Planetary Protection

Much of the challenge of communicating scientific concepts to the public at-large comes in attempting to find ways to make ideas easily digestible. When talking about human space exploration, the possibility of finding extraterrestrial life, or the recovery of cultural artifacts from non-terrestrial sources, the concept of planetary protection is key. Basically, planetary protection stresses the […]

Summer Hits: Martian Water, Asteroid Nukes, Orbital Antimatter!

Here’s a recap of some of this summer’s greatest hits in space news that you might have missed: Water on Mars In an utterly tantalizing development, scientists analyzing imagery from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have announced what appears for all the world to be direct evidence of water on Mars! Because the MRO has […]

The National Space Exploration Administration

Is a National Space Exploration Administration the future of NASA? (Hypothetical logo credit: Ben McGee) I’m a convert. Yesterday, Apollo astroanut, geologist-moonwalker, and U.S. Senator Dr. Harrison “Jack” Schmitt made what amounts to one of the most daring space exploration suggestions to date: End NASA. -And I think I’m all for it. Allow me to explain. In a […]

NASA exploration goal to be announced

A NASA media advisory released yesterday alerted the world to what may be a landmark announcement later this afternoon. Specifically, the advisory states that an agency decision has defined the need for a human “deep space” transportation system. What does this tell us? Well, if we visit NASA’s exploration website, the first story would have […]

Finding the incentive to settle space…

To many, the outward expansion of humanity into the cosmos is inevitable. It seems that a portion of our population is (and has always been) innately possessed of a drive toward the frontier, wherever that might be at the time… Whether venturing to the New World, exploring the farthest reaches of the Earth’s poles, probing the abyssal oceanic depths, or rocketing […]

Russia announces new Nuclear Rockets for manned Mars trip

For the first time in possibly four decades, two electrifying space technology phrases have managed to show up in the same sentence in earnest. Quietly nestled in the murky details of a somewhat thrilling AP news story about a potential new Russian spacecraft to be produced in the next few years are the words: “manned […]